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Jul. 6th, 2004 11:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckLast week, play group met at a park. That had happened before but always on weeks when Delia and I couldn't go. I was a little nervous because it was something we hadn't done before. Valerie and Kendra picked us up, and we drove to Allmendinger Park on the other side of town. I have memories of that park because it was within walking distance of my elementary school. We'd go there for occasional picnics. I remember ice skating there, drinking hot chocolate. The playground equipment's been updated, but the park really looks much the same.
I spread out a blanket and sat on it with Delia. She spent about fifteen minutes on the blanket with me, looking around and touching things she could reach without stepping off. Then she started exploring a step or two away. Not long thereafter, she was wandering around the playground. She'd look around occasionally to be sure I was following, but mostly, she focused on seeing as much new stuff as she could.
The next day, Wednesday, my sister-in-law and her two kids came down, and we went to Island Park for a picnic. I think I prefer Allmendinger,, over all, because the play area is shaded, but Island Park was a lot less crowded. For most of the time we were there, our kids were the only ones using the play equipment while Allmendinger was packed during the time the playgroup was there.
Suzanne came down largely to drop off some stuff for her other brother and his wife. They and their baby were to fly in the next day, and she was trying to get her spare rear facing carseat and portable crib to them. Basically, it was easier for her to get the stuff to us and for Gale's parents to pick it up here than to deliver things directly.
On Thursday, things here got a bit crazy. We had the last of our upstairs windows replaced (had the rest done last summer by the same people). That was the big window in the living room, the one facing the street. That didn't take long, but I had to keep Delia penned up in her bedroom during the work, and she was not happy about it at all. I stayed in there with her except when I needed to answer questions and when I made a brief trip out to get some food for her (She started saying, "Apple. Apple. Apple.").
That would have been excitement enough, but the window installers arrived 15 minutes after someone else did-- We now have a cleaning lady. She charges $10 an hour which I think is a bargain, and she's worked for the last couple of years for a woman we know who's post-polio and unable to do any of her own housework. I asked her for two hours a week and had her start with the bathroom, then work on the kitchen, and finally change the sheets on Delia's bed. I'm hoping that we can gradually expand to work on other bits of the house once the bathroom and kitchen are at the point where they no longer require heavy cleaning. Right now... Well, I get to them so rarely that some bits of them were truly icky.
So far, I'm very happy with Awah (I'm not sure of the spelling of her name). I'm a little intimidated by her, largely because I feel guilty over being home all the time and still not being able to keep the house clean, but she seems very nice. Her spoken English isn't all that great, but she's told me that if I write things down it'll be easier for her. I'm told that she speaks six languages (including excellent French). Apparently, she's doing house cleaning largely because her spoken English isn't good enough for her to handle other types of jobs. She's from somewhere in Africa. I'm not clear on exactly where. I haven't had the chance to talk to her in depth yet; the window thing happening at the same time kind of got in the way of getting acquainted.
The same acquaintance who suggested Awah to us also knows a woman who does yard work at the same rate. We may hire her for a couple of hours a week, too, but I want to wait and get comfortable with Awah before trying someone else new. Also, Scott and I need to decide whether or not the yard matters enough to us to pay to have work done.
I'm of two minds. There is some work that really *has* to be done, and there's some that I want done because it would make the yard look better or is otherwise desirable. I'm just not sure exactly where the line is. I know that the tiny trees near the foundation have to go, the sooner the better, but the bindweed in the flowerbeds by the garage is grayer territory. I want the deadly nightshade that's growing in the black raspberry thicket gone, but what about the burdock in the bushes by the fence in the back?
I attempted a little gardening this summer, growing some seedlings and then planting them in the plot behind the garage. The eggplant seedlings have gotten devoured by bugs. First the leaves turned to lace, and then they were gone. Somehow, I don't think we're going to be getting many eggplants... The herbs I planted are being overwhelmed by weeds because I can't weed regularly. Some of that is not wanting to leave Delia alone inside and not having any way to keep her contained in a safe area in the yard. Some of it is stamina; I can't manage more than about 10 minutes a day. Some of it is that I keep getting really nasty bites through my clothing. The last batch got huge, halfdollar sized, and drove me crazy with itching, so much so that they bruised from my rubbing them.
Jeff and Gale visited us Friday evening for dinner, and we finally got to meet their daughter. Sydney is a darling, not *quite* as cute as Delia was at that age, but I don't expect I'll ever consider any baby that cute (barring more of my own or eventual grandchildren...). Delia actually kissed Sydney (right after we put away the cameras, of course). I have no idea what prompted her to do that, but it was very sweet. We did have to keep pulling Delia back because she wanted to touch Sydney but didn't understand that she need to avoid fingers in eyes and such.
Scott worked Saturday which was very hard on me. Delia hadn't napped on Friday and didn't sleep well that night. She got me up about every two hours, so I had a dreadful headache on Saturday. Saturday night was equally disturbed, but Scott let me try to nap Sunday morning. That made us rather later than we'd hoped in going up to Scott's parents' place. We had a good visit anyway, with lots of chasing after the kids. I managed to write a couple of paragraphs while other people watched Delia.
Jeff and Gale are lucky that Sydney's not yet mobile. She can sit up on her own with a lot of wobbling, but she's not scooting yet. She's about 14 pounds, though, so she looks as large as Delia (who was 16 pounds 6 ounces at her last pediatrician appointment). That's going to limit what clothes we can pass along in the future, I'm afraid, and it's very hard on Gale. She developed pretty bad carpal tunnel during her pregnancy, to the point that her hands were numb a lot of the time, and now, she's in fairly constant pain from it. She's taking ibuprofen non-stop and wearing wrist braces whenever she holds Sydney. I could tell that she's afraid that this won't get better. If it doesn't, it could wreck her career-- She's a surgeon, a vascular surgeon. In September, she's leaving the lab and going back to the wards. If she can't use her hands for fine work then, she's screwed.
By the time we got home, though, my headache had gotten pretty nasty. I had to take a vicodin in order to sleep, the pain was so bad. That's not something I do often. Delia got me up a couple of times during the night, but it wasn't as bad as Friday or Saturday. Then, Scott took Delia out to Island Park in the morning to let me sleep. I think I actually got another three hours. I felt a lot better when I finally got up, still not 100% but better.
I spread out a blanket and sat on it with Delia. She spent about fifteen minutes on the blanket with me, looking around and touching things she could reach without stepping off. Then she started exploring a step or two away. Not long thereafter, she was wandering around the playground. She'd look around occasionally to be sure I was following, but mostly, she focused on seeing as much new stuff as she could.
The next day, Wednesday, my sister-in-law and her two kids came down, and we went to Island Park for a picnic. I think I prefer Allmendinger,, over all, because the play area is shaded, but Island Park was a lot less crowded. For most of the time we were there, our kids were the only ones using the play equipment while Allmendinger was packed during the time the playgroup was there.
Suzanne came down largely to drop off some stuff for her other brother and his wife. They and their baby were to fly in the next day, and she was trying to get her spare rear facing carseat and portable crib to them. Basically, it was easier for her to get the stuff to us and for Gale's parents to pick it up here than to deliver things directly.
On Thursday, things here got a bit crazy. We had the last of our upstairs windows replaced (had the rest done last summer by the same people). That was the big window in the living room, the one facing the street. That didn't take long, but I had to keep Delia penned up in her bedroom during the work, and she was not happy about it at all. I stayed in there with her except when I needed to answer questions and when I made a brief trip out to get some food for her (She started saying, "Apple. Apple. Apple.").
That would have been excitement enough, but the window installers arrived 15 minutes after someone else did-- We now have a cleaning lady. She charges $10 an hour which I think is a bargain, and she's worked for the last couple of years for a woman we know who's post-polio and unable to do any of her own housework. I asked her for two hours a week and had her start with the bathroom, then work on the kitchen, and finally change the sheets on Delia's bed. I'm hoping that we can gradually expand to work on other bits of the house once the bathroom and kitchen are at the point where they no longer require heavy cleaning. Right now... Well, I get to them so rarely that some bits of them were truly icky.
So far, I'm very happy with Awah (I'm not sure of the spelling of her name). I'm a little intimidated by her, largely because I feel guilty over being home all the time and still not being able to keep the house clean, but she seems very nice. Her spoken English isn't all that great, but she's told me that if I write things down it'll be easier for her. I'm told that she speaks six languages (including excellent French). Apparently, she's doing house cleaning largely because her spoken English isn't good enough for her to handle other types of jobs. She's from somewhere in Africa. I'm not clear on exactly where. I haven't had the chance to talk to her in depth yet; the window thing happening at the same time kind of got in the way of getting acquainted.
The same acquaintance who suggested Awah to us also knows a woman who does yard work at the same rate. We may hire her for a couple of hours a week, too, but I want to wait and get comfortable with Awah before trying someone else new. Also, Scott and I need to decide whether or not the yard matters enough to us to pay to have work done.
I'm of two minds. There is some work that really *has* to be done, and there's some that I want done because it would make the yard look better or is otherwise desirable. I'm just not sure exactly where the line is. I know that the tiny trees near the foundation have to go, the sooner the better, but the bindweed in the flowerbeds by the garage is grayer territory. I want the deadly nightshade that's growing in the black raspberry thicket gone, but what about the burdock in the bushes by the fence in the back?
I attempted a little gardening this summer, growing some seedlings and then planting them in the plot behind the garage. The eggplant seedlings have gotten devoured by bugs. First the leaves turned to lace, and then they were gone. Somehow, I don't think we're going to be getting many eggplants... The herbs I planted are being overwhelmed by weeds because I can't weed regularly. Some of that is not wanting to leave Delia alone inside and not having any way to keep her contained in a safe area in the yard. Some of it is stamina; I can't manage more than about 10 minutes a day. Some of it is that I keep getting really nasty bites through my clothing. The last batch got huge, halfdollar sized, and drove me crazy with itching, so much so that they bruised from my rubbing them.
Jeff and Gale visited us Friday evening for dinner, and we finally got to meet their daughter. Sydney is a darling, not *quite* as cute as Delia was at that age, but I don't expect I'll ever consider any baby that cute (barring more of my own or eventual grandchildren...). Delia actually kissed Sydney (right after we put away the cameras, of course). I have no idea what prompted her to do that, but it was very sweet. We did have to keep pulling Delia back because she wanted to touch Sydney but didn't understand that she need to avoid fingers in eyes and such.
Scott worked Saturday which was very hard on me. Delia hadn't napped on Friday and didn't sleep well that night. She got me up about every two hours, so I had a dreadful headache on Saturday. Saturday night was equally disturbed, but Scott let me try to nap Sunday morning. That made us rather later than we'd hoped in going up to Scott's parents' place. We had a good visit anyway, with lots of chasing after the kids. I managed to write a couple of paragraphs while other people watched Delia.
Jeff and Gale are lucky that Sydney's not yet mobile. She can sit up on her own with a lot of wobbling, but she's not scooting yet. She's about 14 pounds, though, so she looks as large as Delia (who was 16 pounds 6 ounces at her last pediatrician appointment). That's going to limit what clothes we can pass along in the future, I'm afraid, and it's very hard on Gale. She developed pretty bad carpal tunnel during her pregnancy, to the point that her hands were numb a lot of the time, and now, she's in fairly constant pain from it. She's taking ibuprofen non-stop and wearing wrist braces whenever she holds Sydney. I could tell that she's afraid that this won't get better. If it doesn't, it could wreck her career-- She's a surgeon, a vascular surgeon. In September, she's leaving the lab and going back to the wards. If she can't use her hands for fine work then, she's screwed.
By the time we got home, though, my headache had gotten pretty nasty. I had to take a vicodin in order to sleep, the pain was so bad. That's not something I do often. Delia got me up a couple of times during the night, but it wasn't as bad as Friday or Saturday. Then, Scott took Delia out to Island Park in the morning to let me sleep. I think I actually got another three hours. I felt a lot better when I finally got up, still not 100% but better.
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no subject
Date: 2004-07-07 06:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-10 09:43 am (UTC)I have been glad to see from your entries that you're doing well, though. I hope it continues.